It is known to mount a liquid dispenser to a fixed surface for use in mobile passenger carriers such as tour buses, aeroplanes and water craft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,948 discloses a dispenser for liquid soap which includes a mounting base for securing to a horizontal surface such as counter top in a washroom and a bottle with a dispensing arrangement for holding and dispensing liquid soap which is removably mountable to the mounting base. In an embodiment, the mounting base has a cup member with an internal thread and the bottle has a protrusion on its base with a corresponding external thread. The dispenser bottle is secured to the base by screwing the protrusion into the cup member. This arrangement secures the bottle to the fixed surface so that it is not thrown around by movement of the carrier but allows for removal of the bottle for replacement or refilling.
In confined washrooms, such as airplane toilets, noxious odours can be unpleasant. To help overcome this problem in a convenient manner, it is known to combine an air freshener with a liquid soap dispenser. GB 2414466 A discloses a combined soap and air freshener dispenser which has a similar mounting arrangement to that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,948.
Use of a common mounting arrangement is advantageous as it allows a range of different dispensers to be mounted using the same type of mounting base. In many passenger carriers, especially aircraft, the screw type mounting base has become a commonly used fitting. However, the position of the threads of the mounting base can vary from aircraft to aircraft, resulting in the known dispenser bottles being mounted in unpredictable rotational orientations. This problem has been overcome in the past by using dispenser bottle assemblies which are substantially symmetrical so that they look the same in any rotational orientation. This though severely restricts the design and construction for an effective product. For example, it can be advantageous for a dispenser to have air freshener components mounted only to one side of the bottle, giving rise to a non-symmetrical design. Where a dispenser bottle assembly is not rotationally symmetrical, it is desirable that it can be positioned in a particular rotational orientation. For example, it may be desirable that the dispenser bottle is positioned so that the air freshener faces away from the user at the rear with any brand labelling towards the front.
GB2495716 A discloses a combined liquid soap and air freshener dispenser having the air fresher on one side of the soap bottle and which includes a screw thread arrangement that allows the rotational orientation of the bottle to be adjusted after is it mounted to a mounting base. The bottle has a generally cylindrical projection extending from its base, the projection having a radial ridge or lip at its lower end. A threaded collar is mounted to the projection and is retained by the ridge. The collar has an external thread for engagement with the internal thread in a mounting base and can rotate about the projection. The collar and the bottle have corresponding abutments which come into contact at specific relative rotational orientations between the two so as to limit the freedom of the collar to rotate about the projection in either direction. To mount the dispenser bottle assembly, the projection and collar are inserted into the threaded cup in the mounting base. The bottle is rotated in a first direction to screw the collar into the base, typically this is a clockwise direction. The bottle projection initially rotates within the collar until the abutments come into contact. Further rotation of the bottle in the first direction causes the collar to be rotated in the same direction due to engagement of the abutments and screws the collar into the mounting base. Once the collar is tight in the base, the rotational orientation of the bottle can be adjusted by turning it in the opposite direction. The abutments are arranged so that the bottle can be rotated by a significant amount in the opposite direction, almost up to 360 degrees, before the abutments come into contact again. This provides a high degree of rotational freedom to reposition the bottle. To remove the bottle from the mounting base, the bottle is rotated in the opposite direction. As the bottle is rotated, the abutments will again come into contact but on the opposite sides and continued rotation of the bottle rotates the collar so that it is unscrewed from the base.
The dispenser bottle mounting arrangement as disclosed in GB2495716 A firmly secures the dispenser bottle to the mounting base whilst allowing a significant degree of rotational freedom of the mounted bottle for repositioning. Whilst the arrangement works well, it has been found that under certain circumstances the abutment on the collar may slip over the abutment on the bottle so that the bottle can be rotated fully through 360 degrees without the abutments engaging correctly to drive the collar. This can result in an inability to correctly mount the bottle to a mounting base and/or an inability to remove a bottle after it has been mounted.
There is a need then for an improved dispenser bottle assembly which overcomes, or at least mitigates, some or all of the disadvantages of the known dispenser bottle assemblies.
In particular, there is a need for an improved dispenser bottle assembly which can be reliably mounted/de-mounted to a screw threaded mounting base and which can be rotationally repositioned when mounted.